Women's Hockey Trumps Lindenwood 5-4

In what was their second overtime win in a row, RIT's women's hockey team (10-14-3,4-8-1 CHA) managed to best Lindenwood University (7-16-1,4-8-1 CHA) 5-4 in a close and incredibly exciting match on the road.

Perhaps the biggest event of what was already a particularly exciting match was fourth year forward Kolbee McCrea, previously featured here in the Reporter, scoring her 100th career point. Kolbee's goal caused her to become the 13th player in the history of RIT's Women's Hockey program to reach the milestone, and it came at quite the opportune time. The goal was a spectacular game-winning underdog shot that came 2:25 into overtime, clinching the victory for the Tigers Friday night at the Lindenwood Ice Arena.

McCrea's goal was the 66th goal of her RIT career and her sixth of the season thus far, both of which are immensely impressive statistics. McCrea is now tied with Jen Gorczynski (Class of 2004) for most all-time goals at RIT, not to mention that a whopping 11 of McCrea's goals have been game-winning shots.

While McCrea was the star of the show Friday night, that's not to say that the rest of the Tigers didn't put in fantastic performances themselves. Second year defense Taylor Thurston scored her first career goal for the Tigers in addition to chalking up two assists. Goals for the Tigers were also handled by fourth year forward Celeste Brown, third year forward Jess Paton and third year forward Carly Payeri, with additional assists covered by fourth year forward/defense Lindsay Grigg and third year defense Haley Northcote. Second year goaltender Brooke Stoddart handled her duties expertly in the net, making 15 saves out of 16 shots over the game's hour for her second win this season.

Things were definitely looking pretty rough for the Tigers at the start of the game, however. Lindenwood crashed out of the gates going 3-0 a meager six minutes into the first period. The Tigers didn't manage to pull off a goal until midway through the second period with Brown firing off of an excellent power play from Grigg. The Tigers scored again roughly a minute later, keeping Lindenwood on their toes the entire time and bringing the score to 3-2 going into the third period.

Thurston tied the game less than a minute into the next period, and Payeri brought the Tigers to their first lead of the game before Lindenwood tied things up and sent the game into overtime, where McCrea made her amazing shot. While regular season games have been wrapped for the Tigers, we're all excited to see what comes next after a great season.